Congress to launch 3 more ‘yatras’

Congress will have three more state specific ‘yatras’ in Tripura, West Bengal and Bihar parallel to the Kanyakumari to Kashmir Bharat Jodo Yatra to energise the cadre even as senior leaders highlight that the Rahul Gandhi-led initiative is bringing warring factions in states on a common platform and burying their differences.

With Bharat Jodo Yatra crossing the half-way mark after entering Nanded in Maharashtra, the Congress leadership has fastened the preparations for the yatras in three states while similar exercise in Odisha where a 2,300 km yatra and in Assam where a 860 km Dubri-Satiya yatra were started already on October 31 and November 1 respectively.

In Tripura, the plan is to start a 400 km yatra on November 19, coinciding with former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, while the yatras in West Bengal (850 km Kolkata to Siliguri yatra) and Bihar (1,100 km Banka to Bodhgaya) would start on December 28, the foundation day of Congress.

Read | Bharat Jodo Yatra takes one-day break in Maharashtra; to proceed to Washim on November 14

Senior leaders Digvijaya Singh and Jairam Ramesh were in Patna to review preparations for the Bihar leg of the yatra. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge will address the state yatras.

The Bharat Jodo Yatra is also making conscious efforts to project Congress’ new found aggression in celebrating the country's diversity and icons. On November 11, the campsite of yatra saw the party members paying tributes to Maulana Abul Kalam Azad on his birth anniversary while Rahul Gandhi is going to attend a function on Tuesday to celebrate tribal icon Birsa Munda’s birth anniversary in Hingoli in Maharashtra. Similar exercises were carried out in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana too.

Sources said the yatra is bringing rich dividends for the party and especially senior leaders, who were otherwise on warpath against their colleagues in the party, are cooperating with each other.

One of the positives of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, a senior leader said, is that the yatra is uniting not just people but party leaders too. Some of them who were at loggerheads with the central leadership also are active in the yatra in their states.

“You saw Ashok Chavan, Prithviraj Chavan, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Sanjay Nirupam and Milind Deoro joining the yatra. In Karnataka, you saw how Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar complemented each other in organising the yatra,” the leader said. There was so much speculation about Ashok Chavan leaving the party but it was his organisational skills that made the Nanded rally hugely successful, the leader said.

The yatra also gave a “big political message” when it reached Maharashtra that the Maha Vikas Agadi (MVA) is “intact”. The leader said NCP’s Supriya Sule and Jayant Patil and Shiv Sena’s Aditya Thackeray joined the yatra, he said. Party patriarchs Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray cited health reasons for their inability to attend yatra related programmes.

So far, the yatra has covered 28 districts – 2 in Tamil Nadu, 7 each in Kerala and Karnataka, 2 in Andhra Pradesh, 8 in Telangana and 2 in Maharashtra (5 in total).

The party does not want to disturb the yatra and wants to complete it without any hindrance. Sources said Rahul is unlikely to attend the Winter Session of Parliament and leaders cite that as the reason for him skipping campaigning in Himachal Pradesh.

However, Rahul may campaign for a day or two in Gujarat with sources saying that plans are being worked out for a convenient date between November 20 and 25.